


Please Don't Go

by VixFeetUnder (torieamccallxx)



Category: All Time Low (Band)
Genre: F/M, Mentions of Character Death, Mentions of Teen Pregnancy, i have thoughts, i'm sorry in advance to my friends, it's happyish i promise, this is loosely based on "ready set please don't go" by billy ray and miley cyrus
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-06
Updated: 2020-11-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:34:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27420520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/torieamccallxx/pseuds/VixFeetUnder
Summary: In which Alex Gaskarth's daughter is leaving for college and he is having some thoughts.
Relationships: Alex Gaskarth/Lisa Ruocco, Alex Gaskarth/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 3





	Please Don't Go

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SharryBH](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SharryBH/gifts), [astrophysicist_not_princess](https://archiveofourown.org/users/astrophysicist_not_princess/gifts).



Alex knew what the big envelope meant, of course he did. It was probably the third one that had come in the mail that week alone addressed to a Miss Juniper Isobel Ruth Gaskarth. The first two had contained acceptance letters to his daughters back up college picks Purdue University and University of Maryland, but he wasn't ready for today. No, today's sat on the dining room table with a big return address that said "Harvard." He didn't know why he was so surprised. Juniper was smart, way smarter than him. It was something that she definitely got from her mother, but when he got the mail today he felt his heart sink into his stomach. An acceptance letter meant that this was real, his only child was graduating high school in the spring, and he would be sending her 400 miles away for four years to get a degree in engineering, which even in a day in age was a surprising degree for females. An acceptance letter meant he was officially old, or at least he felt it. How was he, in four years, going to be the father of a Harvard educated daughter at 36? He couldn't help but think back to the last time he had this feeling. He'd been two days shy of sixteen. He and his dad were taking Maddie, his girlfriend at the time, home after school, it was snowing and they hit black ice. The car hit a tree after it went into the ditch. Alex had a couple cuts and bruises but they had to transport his dad and Maddie to the hospital by ambulance. His dad had broken ribs, but had survived. Maddie had been 8 months pregnant, just over four and a half weeks shy of being due when the accident had occurred. There was internal bleeding. They had delivered his daughter safely, but Maddie fought for her life for four days before she passed. Her parents, even though they had been supportive of the fact their daughter wanted to raise her child despite being 15, wouldn't even look at Juniper when Alex tried to introduce them, and over the next 17 years, he'd accepted they just didn't want anything to do with her other than the yearly school pictures he sent. Maybe it was too painful for them, knowing Juniper looked like her mother, blonde curls with Alex's dimples and brown eyes mixed in, but Alex was relieved when he really thought about it and knew that she still had two sets of grandparents that adored her. At the end of the day, he was lucky. He met Lisa in his Spanish class when he returned to school the second semester of the year, utterly exhausted after nearly 3 weeks of up all-nights with his daughter. She seemed sincere when she asked how he was doing and they became quick friends, started dating when Juniper was 8 months old, and had been together since. He was lucky that he had a wife that loved his daughter as her own, and had since the day she met her. He had even helped his daughter surprise her with adoption papers two christmases ago, right before they got married with the note in the box saying “You and Dad are making it official, we might as well make the obvious official too.” He was lucky because at 32, he was in a successful band with his best friends, had an amazing family, and was about to send his daughter to college. 

A hand on his shoulder brought him out of his thoughts. Turning, he saw his best friend Jack standing there with a concerned look on his face. 

“You okay Alex?” he asked, “You’re staring at the dining table like you saw a ghost” Alex shook his head, sighing loudly. 

“It came.” He said. “The big envelope. Harvard.” Jacks expression changed to shock as he let out a forced laugh. 

“Well shit. We knew she was gonna make it, Lex. She’s smarter than the whole band combined.” he told him. Alex elbowed him. 

“It’s not that I didn’t think she was going to make it, dick head. It’s just, to me, she’s still four years old with pigtails coming into my room because she got sick or had a nightmare. She’s my baby, she can’t be old enough to have college acceptance letters.” Alex was stressed, Jack could tell. It was like he was 15 again and he was staring at his best friend when he told him he was going to be a dad in January. He sighed, patting his friend on the shoulder

“We’re gonna get you through this Gaskarth.” he said.   
____________

“Hey kid” Alex said, walking into his daughter's room. He held the big envelope in his hand, the return address still glaring at him. “This came for you today. Juniper looked up at her dad, reading his face and knowing what it meant. 

“You know just because it says yes doesn’t mean I have to go, right?” she told him. 

“I know, but you have to. You have worked your ass off since second grade for this acceptance letter. It’s always been Harvard, it’s always going to be Harvard” he told her. 

“But it’s six and half hours away. I won’t be able to see you and Mom like I should.” She told him. “I can just go to University of Maryland.” That was something Alex wasn’t expecting, her to be questioning her acceptance and attendance of her dream college.

“Juniper Isobel Ruth. You have not spent years getting straight A’s, crying when you get anything less than an A minus to not go to Harvard. Do you know how hard it even is to get in? Your mom and I are going to be fine. And there’s school breaks and holidays. We can come to you or you can come to us” he told her. “So you’re going to open this envelope, go online and accept the offer to attend. You haven’t been accumulating money in a bank account that your grandparents set up for 17 years for you to throw this away.” 

“But it’s money I don’t even want. They want nothing to do with me so why did they set it up.” she told him. Alex sighed, he knew this day would come. Slowly, he walked over and sat at the foot of her bed. 

“Its painful for them, Juniper. Your biological mom? She was amazing. We were fifteen and we weren’t thinking but we made you. Even at fifteen, she loved you more than anything in the world. She wanted you, and she never even got to meet you. I think back to the day of that accident. It was the last day of school for the semester, Grandpa was driving us back to her house after school and we hit black ice. She fought so hard to get to be your mom, and it didn’t happen. That’s where your middle name comes from, Ruth. It was her middle name. And her parents, they took one look at you and saw how much you looked like your mother, and couldn’t take you. I was never supposed to be the one who raised you, but I’m so glad I was the one who did. You went on more adventures in your life by 10 years old than most kids do ever. You made me a better person. I used to feel so guilty about having to leave you with your mom when I’d go on tour, but she’s loved you unconditionally since the first time she saw you. I told her when we started dating when you were eight months old that she didn’t have to stick around, and she told me she wanted to. I know that your college education doesn’t make up for seventeen years without your grandparents being involved in your life but at least it’s something. Maddie would have liked that they at least tried.” he told her. Before he could even form another sentence, he felt his daughter wrap her arms around him, crying. 

“Do you think they’d let me visit before I go off to college?” she asked. “I just want to thank them for paying, and maybe we can get a proper picture for the dorm room?” 

“I’ll call them and ask, okay?” he said. “At the end of the day, you know you have two sets of grandparents who love you unconditionally, parents who would do anything for you, and aunts, uncles, and cousins who adore you.” 

“Yeah, I know.” she murmured. “But this is different.”


End file.
